ABOUT

Pythian is a global IT services company that specializes in designing, implementing, and managing systems that directly contribute to revenue and business success. We help companies adopt disruptive technologies to advance innovation and increase agility. Our highly skilled technical teams work as an integrated extension of our clients’ organizations to deliver continuous transformation and uninterrupted operational excellence using our expertise in cloud, DevOps, big data infrastructure, advanced analytics, databases, infrastructure management, and databases.

LEADERSHIP TEAM

Paul Vallée

Chief Executive Officer, Chairman & Founder

Paul Vallée is an experienced entrepreneur whose passion for data and for excellence led to the foundation of Pythian in 1997. Paul started his career as a data scientist, continued as a systems architect, and by the age of 25 had started his fourth company—Pythian. From two employees and a couple of laptops, Pythian has now grown to more than 250 people with offices in North America, Europe, and Asia. As Chief Executive Officer, Paul continues to lead Pythian as a center of excellence for expert, outsourced data services for the world’s mission-critical data infrastructures.

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Keith Millar

Chief Revenue Officer

Keith Millar has been helping clients optimize their data centers and businesses for 20 years. Today, as Chief Revenue Officer, Keith leads Pythian’s sales, marketing, business development, service delivery, and CTO office. Keith’s focus is on optimizing the Pythian client experience to build durable, valuable relationships. Prior to Pythian, at Quest Software, Keith led the product teams for all new and existing products for the Microsoft platform. Revenues grew from $10 to $50 million during the 3 years prior to his departure. Stand-out clients included Boeing, Motorola, UBS, and Charles Schwab. Keith has been published in industry magazines and speaks at events every year.
Keith holds an Engineering degree from Queen’s University and an MBA from University of British Columbia.

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Alex Gorbachev

Chief Technology Officer

Alex Gorbachev is a highly sought-after speaker and a well-recognized and respected figure in both the Oracle and big data communities. Alex holds the prestigious Oracle ACE Director designation from Oracle Corporation and was recently named Big Data Champion by Cloudera. His deep technological expertise and vision have helped put Pythian at the forefront of emerging data markets. Today, the CTO office is an incubator of new services and technologies. Most recently, Alex built Pythian’s Big Data Engineering services team and established a Data Science practice.

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Siobhan Devlin

General Counsel

Siobhan is a seasoned lawyer who has extensive experience gained from her early career as both an Associate and Partner in private practice and more recently in senior in-house counsel positions in multiple industries. She has been providing legal advice to her corporate clients for over 20 years. Prior to joining Pythian, Siobhan was General Counsel with Protus IP Solutions (Protus). While with Protus, she played a key role in the sale of the company to j2 Global Communications Inc. for $213M, the largest Canadian venture capital-backed exit in 2010. Siobhan holds a B.A. (Honours) in Political Science from Carleton University and a LL.B. from the University of Ottawa. She is a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada.

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Myles Trachtenberg

Senior VP, Product Commercialization

As Senior Vice President (SVP), Product Commercialization at Pythian, Myles is leading the spin off and launch of Pythian’s Enterprise Security business. Myles’ career has offered him the opportunity to serve in a number of senior leadership positions, including Chief Information Technology Officer of FreshDirect and Chief Information Office at Register.com. Prior to Pythian, Myles served as SVP and Chief Information Officer for TravelClick, where he revitalized their technology services and expanded their business with new business intelligence, web, and reservation products. Passionate about innovation and the deep, dark world of enterprise security, Myles is a member of the New York Electronic Crimes Task Force (NYECTF).

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Rob Hamel

Vice President, Service Delivery

As head of both the Advanced Technology Consulting Group and Service Delivery team, Rob keeps Pythian’s leadership culture strong with his superior technical knowledge, strong team-building skills, and customer-first orientation. Rob draws on more than 20 years’ experience in the data management industry to provide strategic direction to Pythian and his team. His leadership skills coupled with extensive experience in production engineering and data architecture have proved invaluable in solving complex customer issues and in establishing Pythian as a global leader in the data consulting and managed services industry.

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Lynda Partner

Vice President, Marketing

With more than two decades of experience, Lynda Partner is a veteran sales and marketing executive with an exceptional record of leading businesses to financial, operational, and market success. Throughout her career, Lynda has consistently delivered results in high-growth and start up organizations, positioning her well to build Pythian’s brand through marketing and corporate communications. Before joining Pythian, Lynda was Vice President, Marketing and Chief Communications Officer at Redline Communications where she and her team returned the company to profitability after 15 straight years of losses. As an entrepreneur, Lynda has led and founded several successful start ups, including In-Touch Survey Systems, Caravelle, and GotMarketing. Lynda was recently named WXN 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada.

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Raj Thukral

Vice President, Infrastructure and Development

Raj has been managing and guiding highly effective teams for over 20 years. Raj combines strong leadership skills with a deeply technical background in IT consulting to bring tailored and efficient technology solutions to Pythian. Additionally, his focus on data security has helped Pythian meet and often exceed client and regulatory requirements. Prior to joining Pythian in 2003, Raj held various leadership positions with a proven record of success. He has a degree in Industrial Engineering and has worked in multiple IT and engineering fields.

Alain Tardif

Vice President, Finance

Alain’s fast track through the world of accounting can be attributed to his focus and dedication. Alain began his career in 1996 when he joined Ernst & Young as a Junior Auditor. In 2004, he left Ernst & Young as a Senior Manager to become Controller of Quake Technologies, Inc and later Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (AMCC), two semi-conductor companies. While with Quake, he played a key role in the sale of the company to AMCC. Alain is a Chartered Accountant (CA), a Certified Management Accountant (CMA) and a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).

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Gregg Kitaeff

Vice President, Global Sales

Gregg Kitaeff began his career in technology sales in 1998 and joined Pythian in 2010. With more than 16 years’ experience in the managed services industry, Gregg has had great success as an individual contributor and a player coach. He now leads Pythian’s sales team as Vice President of Global Sales, working out of Pythian’s New York City office. Prior to joining Pythian, Gregg spent 11 years at a small ISP in New York called Digital Telemedia, Inc. (DTI) and helped lead its rebranding to Logicworks, a managed hosting provider where he built a sales team that increased revenue 400%. Gregg holds a Master's Degree from New York University and spends his spare time with his family and keeping fit.

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Francisco Alvarez

Vice President, Asia Pacific

As VP Asia Pacific, Francisco is responsible for sales, marketing, Service Delivery and Operations in the Asia Pacific region. Francisco who joined Pythian in early 2014 was most recently responsible for Service Delivery for all of Asia Pacific for Pythian, and before that served as Chief Technology Officer at DBIS. He has more than two decades’ experience in Oracle databases, is an Oracle ACE Director and published author, has been the President of the Chilean Oracle Users Group and founder of the Oracle Technology Network (OTN) tours in Latin America and Asia Pacific, and is well known for his evangelist work with the Oracle community. His primary focus at Pythian is market expansion, community involvement and maintaining his ongoing commitment to delivering services of exceptional quality.

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Aaron Lee

Vice President, Transformation Services

Aaron brings a unique combination of deep technical knowledge and a practical business orientation to his role as VP Transformational Services. He is responsible for the team that helps Pythian customers transform their business for successful growth, and he focuses on providing thought, technology and organizational leadership on behalf of Pythian clients. Aaron came to Pythian by way of Blackbird. Io, acquired in 2014 by Pythian for their full-stack transformation and managed services business. Before Blackbird.io, Aaron held increasingly senior roles in companies that include DriveDev, Fatminds, and Paypal. A vocal advocate for aligning technology with business objectives, Aaron is a sought after speaker at many industry events.

Heidi Hauver

Director, Human Resources

Heidi Hauver is an experienced Human Resources leader who has worked in multiple industries, including a decade in technology. She creates positive, innovative, and progressive HR programs that attract, retain, and engage Pythian’s stellar employees. Her dedication has positioned Pythian as a world-class employer. Heidi holds Applied Management & Human Resource Management Certificates from Algonquin College, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Resources & Labour Relations with Athabasca University. She is a Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP) and a Certified Coach Practitioner (CCP).

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Vanessa Simmons

Director, Business Development

Vanessa is an experienced business development professional with over 15 years’ experience in all aspects of the business development and marketing disciplines. She brings endless energy, drive, and a results-oriented approach to creating Pythian’s strategic partnerships and business initiatives. In her spare time, Vanessa pursues her passion for great food, wine, and artisan cheeses as an accredited Cheese Sommelier and Cordon Bleu-trained chef. Her weekly Friday afternoon cheese tastings at Pythian’s Ottawa office aren’t to be missed!

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Paul Vallée

Paul Vallée is an experienced entrepreneur whose passion for data and for excellence led to the foundation of Pythian in 1997. Paul started his career as a data scientist, continued as a systems architect, and by the age of 25 had started his fourth company—Pythian. From two employees and a couple of laptops, Pythian has now grown to more than 250 people with offices in North America, Europe, Asia. As Chief Executive Officer, Paul continues to lead Pythian as a center of excellence for expert, outsourced data services for the world’s mission-critical data infrastructures.

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Andrew Waitman

Andrew brings broad and diverse experiences to his role, drawing on his background in technology, investment banking, venture capital, board stewardship, and angel investing. Andrew is an active leader in the business community, sitting on the boards of Fidus Systems and the Advisory Board of Genesys Capital. He is also a Charted Financial Analyst and a member of the Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario.

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Myles Trachtenberg

As Senior Vice President (SVP), Product Commercialization at Pythian, Myles is leading the spin off and launch of Pythian’s Enterprise Security business. Myles’ career has offered him the opportunity to serve in a number of senior leadership positions, including Chief Information Technology Officer of FreshDirect and Chief Information Office at Register.com. Prior to Pythian, Myles served as SVP and Chief Information Officer for TravelClick, where he revitalized their technology services and expanded their business with new business intelligence, web, and reservation products. Passionate about innovation and the deep, dark world of enterprise security, Myles is a member of the New York Electronic Crimes Task Force (NYECTF).

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PARTNERS

Partnering with Pythian guarantees your customers’ valuable data is in good hands.

Arjen Visser

CEO & CTO Dbvisit Software Limited

Pythian is not only recognized as one of the worldwide experts and professionals in databases, they are also the most passionate people when it comes to sharing this information with the database community around the world. We know the Pythian people well through this community and are privileged to be partnering with Pythian to deliver first-class implementation and services capability around our database products.

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Community Involvement

Pythian’s Love Your Community program is proud to support the active community participation of our employees through our Volunteer Day and Employee Sponsorship programs. Our employees donate their time as coaches, mentors, volunteers, and board members by contributing to fundraising initiatives, and lending their skills and talent to local community and industry organizations. To recognize the importance of giving back to the community, Pythian grants employees one paid volunteer day per calendar year to participate in a community event with a charity or non-profit organization of their choice, and we sponsor individual and group participation in a variety of community-based events. The aim of this program is to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to helping our employees make their local communities safer, stronger, and better places to live and work.

In addition to supporting individual contributions to the community, Pythian also:

Supports a number of team-based community initiatives throughout the year.

Participates in the cooperative education programs of local colleges and universities by providing placements for students each semester.

Partners with the University of Ottawa Telfer School of Management’s Management Information Systems (MIS) Program. Since 2012, Pythian has provided scholarships and paid internships to four MIS students per year.

Sits on local councils. Pythian founder, Paul Vallee, forms part of Hire Immigrants Ottawa’s “Employer Council of Champions” (ECC), which features leading local employers who are committed to championing the issue of skilled immigrant employment.

Works with Hire Immigrants Ottawa and is a member of the Information Technology Sector Working Group. We work with a team of professionals attempting to tackle barriers and systemic challenges that employers face in their efforts to hire and integrate internationally trained professionals into the workplace.

Builds relationships and supports the services of organizations, such as World Skills (Ottawa Job Match Network), Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre, the Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization, and ITO.

Ethical Labor Practices

Pythian is an equal opportunity employer. We hire global talent, and we focus on the expertise and experience a candidate brings, not where they gained it. We have always supported the inclusion of skilled immigrants in our talent pool. It allows us to engage and retain top industry talent and diversify our workforce (both culturally and technically). Pythian is proud to have employees in over 25 countries and in the Ottawa office alone, Pythian team members speak over 20 languages.

We provide generous annual leave to all Pythian employees, including vacation and sick leave. When employees welcome new additions to their family we provide them with extended parental vacation leave. We also provide generous bereavement leave for those employees dealing with the difficult loss of a family member.

Pythian recognizes that the continued success of our company is dependent on the knowledge, skills, experience, and expertise of our employees. Through our Learning & Development programs, employees have access to extensive learning opportunities both internally and externally.

Environment

As a global organization, it is important that Pythian continues to minimize its environmental impact. Currently, Pythian employees use laptop computers (a typical laptop uses 20–90 watts, compared to 100–800 watts for desktops) and over 45% of Pythian employees telecommute 100% of the time.

James Gardiner

James Gardiner ,
SQL Server Database Consultant

Audio transcript

Everyday, we're working on solving these complex problems and if you get stuck, we have this network of people with skills and experience from across the globe. And that kind of environment is really great for sharing ideas and coming up with creative ways to solve issues. As someone who is new to the field, having that kind of support that fosters learning is really just invaluable.

Raj Thukral

Raj Thukral ,
VP, Infrastructure and Development

Audio transcript

I've been with Pythian for over 10 years now and there's never a dull moment. Every day brings new challenges and new learning experiences. Being surrounded by some of the smartest people in the world, makes it a pleasure to come to work every day. I began my career at Pythian as a database administrator and over the years have worked as a team lead, service delivery manager, as well as a senior consultant. Today I lead the Infrastructure and Development team.

DATA IS GROWING AND SO ARE WE!

Pythian’s collaborative team environment means everyone works together to solve complex puzzles and develop innovative solutions for our clients. And they do it from the office or their home–anywhere in the world. Apply today and get started on an amazing career in data.

CONTACT US

Innovate today with Pythian.

About Pythian

Pythian is a global IT services company that specializes in designing, implementing, and managing systems that directly contribute to revenue and business success. We help companies adopt disruptive technologies to advance innovation and increase agility. Our highly skilled technical teams work as an integrated extension of our clients’ organizations to deliver continuous transformation and uninterrupted operational excellence.